Town & Country

December 2017

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Country
Town
M A N I T O B A
Editor: Pat St. Germain – pdstgermain@gmail.com
&
Grow North participants
from several communities
gathered at the Setting Lake
camp to share information
about gardening, beekeeping
and other topics. Caroline
Sanoffsky (in plaid shirt,
below right) teaches a
session on gathering
medicines. Photos by
Melanie Mcgillis courtesy
of Food Matters Manitoba
Saturday, December 2, 2017 The Northern Manitoba issue
WHY
LYNN
LAKE
IS
THE
SPORTFISHING
CAPITAL
OF
MANITOBA.
WHY
LYNN
LAKE
IS
THE
SPORTFISHING
CAPITAL
OF
MANITOBA.
W
ith clean lakes speckling the landscape
and pristine rivers meandering throughout
the area, the Lynn Lake area is home to some
of Canada's biggest trout, pike, and pickerel.
And with rolling eskers and the untamed
northern boreal forest making up the rest of the
landscape, the majestic beauty of nature in every
glance will exceedyour imagination. Local lodges
offera wide range of services, and free camping
is available at two roadaccessible campgrounds
complete with boat launches.
And if you can't wait until summer to visit,
the area is blessed with naturalbeauty year-
round, "which our local tourism operators and
outfitters would love to share with you.
Whatever your outdoors pleasure, Lynn Lake
awaits 'At the end of the road'.
Brochures: Call (204) 356-2418 or visit www.lynnlake.ca
See for yourself
S
haring is the hallmark
of small communities,
and it could come in
any form: Sharing food,
culture and traditions, or even
the kind of on-the-ground
know-how that people need
to get by and to succeed.
Grow North is a regular gathering of
knowledgeable people and presenters who come
together to do just that. The most recent Grow
North conference took place in Wabowden over
three days in August, with participants from
Split Lake, Baden, Grand Rapids, Lac Brochet,
Nelson House, Wabowden and Winnipeg.
"We pick the go-to people in those
communities and we bring them together and
get ideas on something to do with healthy living
that they'd like to take back to their communities
to share," says Caroline Sanoffsky, administrator
for the Bayline Regional Round Table.
Workshops included a food handlers
certification course; beekeeping in the North;
community gardening and greenhouse basics; a
co-op market panel discussion; and harvesting
food and traditional medicines from the land.
Past Grow North subjects have also included
poultry-raising and commercial fishing. The
Wabowden event was put together by three
coordinators — Sanoffsky, Food Matters
Manitoba community food facilitator Amanda
Froese and Jessica Burton, from the Northern
Association of Community Councils (NACC).
Their organizations work to increase food
security, foster community networks and develop
community gardens, among other projects.
"I have 12 communities that I work with in
the North, and Food Matters and NACC also
work with a number of their own communities,"
Sanoffsky says.
Participants gathered at a camp at Setting
Lake Park. The bulk of information concerned
life on the land and the camp facilitated the
kind of hands-on learning that Sanoffsky says
is crucial.
"When you're in MTS Centre or a town hall,
you're not going to show someone how to set a
net for catching a fish," she says.
Providing the workshops is just the first
step. Sanoffsky says people go back to their
home communities and schools to share their
new skills, especially cooking with traditional
foods. Post-event, community members are
invited to provide feedback. Surveys are taken
by the Grow North participants, who are
equipped with printed materials to support
what they have learned, and the information is
compiled in a report.
The latest report noted that the food handlers
course, gardening and greenhouse basics, and
harvesting food from the land provided valuable
knowledge that participants planned to share.
"The new skills that they picked up and that
they wanted to take back is how to pick the
medicines off the land; how to smoke fish; and
how to prepare the medicines (harvested from
the land)," Sanoffsky adds.
"A hundred percent of participants said they
were very likely to share all of these things
that they learned at this Grow North with the
members of their community."
Sanoffsky says participants appreciate the
opportunity to learn from people from different
places all over Manitoba.
"Everybody can make a pot of chicken soup
and everybody makes it taste a little different,"
she says. "So when we come together and we
share all these different ideas, you can just see
the light bulbs go on when they look at each
other and say, 'Hey, I can try that!'
"I think that's the main idea behind doing
this — for all our people to share common
knowledge."
FOOD
for
THOUGHT
SHARING KNOWLEDGE AT GROW NORTH
Workshops included
a food handlers
certification course;
beekeeping in the
North; community
gardening and
greenhouse basics;
a co-op market panel
discussion; and
harvesting food and
traditional medicines
from the land.
Learn more about Grow North conferences and other events at www.foodmattersmanitoba.ca.